DigiTrust

A neutral, non-profit industry initiative within the IAB Tech Lab ecosystem focused on standardizing digital identity for programmatic advertising

DigiTrust was a non-profit initiative operating under the IAB Tech Lab umbrella that sought to create a standardized, industry-wide identity solution for digital advertising. Founded with the goal of simplifying user identification across the open web, DigiTrust developed a shared, encrypted user ID that publishers, advertisers, and ad tech vendors could use to recognize users without relying on fragmented, proprietary cookie-based systems. The initiative was designed to improve both user privacy and operational efficiency across the programmatic advertising ecosystem. The DigiTrust ID functioned as a neutral, consent-based identifier that could be adopted by any member of the digital advertising supply chain. By centralizing identity in a single, standardized token, DigiTrust aimed to reduce the number of individual tracking calls made on a webpage, thereby improving page load performance while also giving users more transparent control over their data. The project attracted participation from major publishers, DSPs, SSPs, and data companies who saw value in a collaborative, non-commercial approach to identity. IAB Tech Lab acquired DigiTrust in April 2018. Facing operating costs, limited funding and browsers' moves against third-party cookies, its participants agreed to sunset the service, and DigiTrust shut down on July 31, 2020. IAB Tech Lab's later identity work continued under Project Rearc.